Chapter 2: Civilian Public Service (CPS)

Allen decided to serve his country in a way that honored his religious
convictions. He enlisted in the Civilian Public Service (CPS) in 1942.
As a conscientous objector or CO, Allen risked derision, scorn and
hatred by others. However, Allen was serious about his beliefs and
wanted to serve the best that he could. "Probably some of the best and
most positive times in Allen's life centered around his CPS experiences.
Allen entered CPS Camp # 33 in Fort Collins, CO in the spring of 1942".
(35) He enjoyed the Colorado mountains and scenery. Mary writes about a
change in attitude that Allen had in regard to his service there as time
went on. During the first year of CPS camp, he became upset and
depressed about the lack of sincerity of many of the CPS'ers. He felt
they were using their religion to escape military service and weren't
serious in their opposition to violence. (36) He would later volunteer
for the Smoke Jumpers, which was in its infancy at this time. It would
provide more of a challenge and put him in a more isolated position.(37)

Roy Wenger, first director of the CPS Smokejumpers Camp wrote an article
outlining the beginnings of the CPS involvement with the United States
Forest Service. "USFS was about to enlarge its experimental smoke
jumpers program from 21 to 60 men if an agreement could be reached. The
agreement was signed, the request for volunteers went out to all CPS
camps, 300 volunteered, 60 chosen and approved by both the church
agencies and USFS, and training began at Seely Lake in April. It was a
highly intelligent, well self-disciplined group, superior in mental and
physical abilities and matched by the USFS training staff of like
abilities. It was, in a sense a CPS camp direct- or's dream." (38)
Ultimely, Allen and his fellow CPS'ers were instrumental in making the
Smoke Jumpers the elite group it is today.

According to Wikipedia in October 16, 1940 there was no structure in
place to handle thousands of anticipated conscientous objectors.
President Franklin Roosevelt was not in favor of a program without
military oversight, so a compromise was reached. Nearly 12,000 church
affiliates made up the National Religious Conscientous Objectors, with
the Mennonites being the largest group, and would serve as a liason
between the churches and the federal government. The federal government
spent $1.3 million for this program. The men performed $6 million in
unpaid labor costs. The men served without wages and received minimal
support from the federal government. The cost to maintain the camps
came from the congregations and families. (39)

The men lived in barrack-style camps. The camps served as a base of
operation from where the CPS'ers departed to do daily assignments. The
men worked nine hours a day for six days a week. They received an
allowance of between $2.50 and $5.00 a month for personal needs. The
men earned two days of furlough for each month of service. These days
could be saved to allow time to travel several miles from home base.
(40)

Allen enlisted in the Forest Service and National Park Division. He
along with other members of the camp were responsible for fire control.
Between fires they built forest trails, cared for nursery stock, planted
thousands of seedlings, and engaged in pest control. (41) Letters
written to family members would reveal day to day activities. He was
seen as having great leadership skills by many of the men he worked with
and even his superiors.

Allen made many good friends, during his time of service. One of his
friends, Oliver Huset, and Allen were assigned as lookouts. Lookouts
were usually housed in a two storied wooden structure atop a mountain
for better viewing of forest fires. Life could be pretty isolated with
few visitors. However, Allen and "Ollie" became fast
friends. Although there was a four year age difference, the two men got
along famously. Allen makes reference to Oliver in a letter written to
his parents December 4, 1944, "Dear Folks, Well today Oliver is
another year older, 23. Wed. is my turn and I really feel old. Gee Whiz
2 1/2 years in C.P.S. and prospects of that many more, Oh! well So
Gehtz, I used to think when a guy got to be 27 he would get that middle
age spread, well I am."(42) (Note: Gehtz is German for "so it
goes") Oliver was a vegetarian and rather than let good meat go to
waste, Allen would get a double meat ration, courtesy of Oliver! Many
years following their service together, Oliver and his family would
travel to Deer Creek for visits and an opportunity to stay in touch.

According to the National Smokejumpers Association, Oliver would go to
become an engineer in his home state of North Dakota. He traveled and
even worked a time in New York City, before coming back home to teach at
the University of North Dakota. He passed away on March 27, 2004 (43)
Allen is also listed in the National Smokejumpers Association database
with the following information. "He was one of the few Civilian
Public Service Smokejumpers to jump all three years the CPS jumpers
handled operations out of Missoula."(44) As a smokejumper, Allen
made at least 22 jumps.

In many of Allen's letters he would insert reflections of current
affairs, funny antedotes or jokes. The following is one such story.
"An inmate in an asylum told one of the CPS men," I get $75 a
month and they pay you $15 a month to watch me. Now tell me just who is
crazy." He followed that story with a thoughtful insight from Mark
Twain. "Mark Twain told of the definition of forgiveness
volunteered by an inmate of an asylum: "Forgiveness is the
fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that crushed it." (45)

Hundreds of men volunteered for smokejumping, showing their willingness
to take great personal risks. Smokejumpers were often placed in
dangerous situations because when a fire was detected they were flown
directly to the site and dropped by parachute to quickly contain and
extinguish the fire. Allen writes about his first smokejumping
experience to his family on stationary with the Smokejumper's letterhead
and Camp 103 on the heading. It was entitled,"First Jump of '44
season." "On July 5, 1944 at 5:00 p.m. Morrell Mountain Lookout reported
a smoke. The plane, Travelair, was ordered soon after and we ate supper
at 5:30 as usual. At 6:00 Wag Dodge designated Paul Shrock and myself,
Allen Moyer to jump. We loaded the equip- ment on the truck and took it
to the landing strip where we suited up. The plane arrived at 6:50, we
crawled in, loaded our fire packs and took off immediately. We flew
over toward the base of Morrell Mountain and looked for smoke. The
smoke was hugging the ground so we didn't spot it until we had flown
over the area until 7:20. Shrock was the first to jump. He spotted for
a small patch of short production. He landed on the edge, his chute
hung up a tree about 30 feet. I jumped second and found that the new
method of steering worked excellently. I turned my chute N.E. thinking
the drift was toward the S.W. As I neared the treetops my chute turned
wonderfully as I dodged several snags. About 80 feet up a cross drift
hit me and started the chute oscillating. I slammed into a fir about 25
feet from the ground and on the back swing I hit the ground It was my
first backward landing and was an easy one. My chute draped over about
25 lodge poles ranging in size from 8 to 15 feet. I jumped up and waved
my streamer, then took off my equipment. The cargo was dropped 50 feet
from my chute. Paul and I had our equipment together and chutes
retrieved at 8:20 and in 10 minutes we found the fire, a large yellow
pine snag. The fire was confined to the snag so we went to work with
the crosscut saw and dropped the snag. We then used moist earth to cool
off the hot areas and then knocked all hot charred pieces loose and
mixed them thoroughly with earth. By 11:30 we had the fire out and the
log trenched. We then crawled into our bags and fought mosquitos. The
next morning we carried our equipment to the nearest trail. The packer
picked it up and we walked to a road and came back to Seely Lake in a
pickup in time for lunch." (46) From base camps scattered through the
forests of Montan, Idaho, and Oregon men were flown as many as 200
miles to fire sites, carrying firefighting tools and 2 day supply of
K-Rations. For larger fires additional men, supplies and food were
airdropped to expand the effort. Up to 240 men served in this
specialized program. One of the smokejumpimg schools was at Camp Paxton
in Montana. (47)

David Pittman, Allen's cousin, remembers a conversation he had with
Allen." He told me once the loneliest he had ever been was one Christmas
when he was walking down the street of some Montana town all by
himself wishing he could come home." (48)

During March 1947, Civilian Public Service workers were officially
released from their assignments and camps were closing. Allen writes to
his parents about his pending dis- charge. The following is a hastily
scrawled note dated March 4, 1946: " My discharge just came in at noon
today. I am routed through Denver to Fort Worth, Texas and from there
Medford on the Rock Island." (49) However, another letter dated May 18,
1946 would state that Allen was in Helena, Montana, still awaiting
discharge from Civilian Public Service.

In reading Allen's letters home to his family, it became very evident
that Allen had a variety of job experiences. Here are just a few
gleaned from the letters: engineer, cook (in Allen's own words," a
new low in my career"), chiropractor,supervisor,doctor, fore- man,
truck driver,chauffer, mechanic, blacksmith, bridge builder, painter,
road construc- tion job, telephone pole installer, patrol squad (fire
spotter), bread baker and barber! (50)

After his release from CPS Allen would often provide transportation for
his sister, Mary to bus stops, to Bethel College. Later, he made one
mad dash to get Mary to Hutchinson Kansas, where she was teaching and
living without a car to get her in time for her first date with Roland
Duerksen. She writes that conversation was good during these trips,
although he insisted that the only reason he made the trip to Hutch was
that he was afraid she would be an old maid.(51) It was at this time
that Allen would begin a new chapter in his life.